As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came
to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. She had a
sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. But
Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to
him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work
by myself? Tell her to help me!”

“Martha, Martha,”
the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, but only one
thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away
from her.”

I live in a household where men are the
minority. Even when my father was alive it was always only the two of us and my
mother, two sisters and more recently my wife and my daughter. My father was
perhaps a converted feminist while I have been nurtured and steeped in feminism
since my childhood, witnessing the struggles of the women in my family to claim
not only equal opportunities in society but also equal responsibility.

Today is the 103rd International
Women’s Day and the theme I would like
us to reflect on this afternoon is, “Woman Know Thy Place”.

Together we will explore the text and what
Jesus words to Martha mean for us in a society where a woman’s place is
traditionally still in the home.

Martha
is a homer owner.

Martha and Mary are not strangers to Jesus,
their brother Lazarus is a close friend of Jesus and the Gospel of John tells
of Jesus’ raising of Lazarus from the dead (John 11:1-44) and of Mary’s
anointing His feet (John 12:1-11). In our reading, however, Lazarus is not
mentioned and it is Martha to whom the home belongs to. She is the head of the
household and it is she who opens her home to Jesus. Women had it pretty bad in
1st century Palestine,
with none of the rights we advocate today afforded to them in the patriarchal
Jewish society. Yet we have Martha, seemingly a woman of independent means as
there is no mention of a husband and her brother, according to John, merely
lives there. Martha is the head of this household and it is she who invites
Jesus in.

This is in stark contrast to many of our traditions
where women while often in charge of the running of the household are still
required to submit to their husbands as it head. While this may have originally
been due to the role of the husband as the sole breadwinner, today, through
economic necessity rather than any paradigm shift in gender-equity both husband
and wife and even children of working age all must contribute to the household.

Yet while accepting the equality of
responsibility for the family, many women continue to be denied an equal share
of leadership in the home. Jesus, by accepting Martha’s invitation,
acknowledges her as the head of her household, thus recognising the equal right
of women to ownership and leadership in the home and society and provides us
the opportunity to do the same. As a man accepting a women as hostess, Jesus
also liberates us from the notion that it is the man who is to provide for the
woman and that as a man, our masculinity is safe, even if it is our spouse,
mother or sister that takes on the role of provider.

Mary
sits at the foot of Jesus listening while Martha is distracted by all the
preparations that had to be made.

While our text of scripture is very short, I
have read children’s books where Martha is described in great detail, cooking
up a storm in the kitchen as she, covered in flour and sweat, prepares a feast
for Jesus. Her expected assistant in this endeavour is not with her but sitting
and listening to Jesus.

In my family all the men must not only know
how to cook but must practice this skill on a regular basis. The first reason
for this as you can see from my shapely figure is that we enjoy eating the
fruits of our labour in a very literal sense. We love to cook and eat and all
subscribe to the creed, “If you want it cooked the way you like it, cook it
yourself”. However, there is another and perhaps more ethical reason behind
this. Everyone in the family not only has both the right and responsibility to
work, but also to serve. So it is not uncommon for all the family to be out at
meetings or still at work when dinner needs to be prepared. Household chores
are divided not along gender but in terms of who is available. Over the winter
break – I went home spent a lot of time in the kitchen as I was on holiday – or
in front of the barbecue.

Often I have been to prayer meetings and
other gatherings, where while men take prominent place in worship or
discussion, women are in the kitchen and miss out on the opportunity to
participate in worship, and hear, share and join in discussions that affect
community. The emphasis is placed more on the role of host and hostess, than
participant, audience or congregation. This is another failure by men (perhaps
deliberate) to acknowledge Jesus’ advocacy for full participation by women in
family, community and religious life. By placing woman in the home,
male-dominated society has in effect eliminated her leadership roles from all
the spheres of community, delegating her to catering, cleaning and serving
positions. Many women have become trapped in this cycle, unconsciously
perpetuating it as Martha does when she asks Jesus to tell Mary to help her in
the kitchen.

Mary
has chosen what is better and it will not be taken away from her

This story is primarily about the
distractions that keep us from God; Jesus also uses this event to speak to us
about the role of women not only in society and home but in the church as well.
As Christians we are called to place God first. Love of neighbour and service
to others is not done for its own sake, but because it is how we express our
love for God and serve a creator that made us, male and female, in the image of
God.

On International Women’s Day, the Church –
that’s us, the body of Christ is called to commit to action towards the
elimination of all forms of violence against women and children in church and
society. We are to give a voice to the voiceless and be agents of
transformation in our societies.

For that to happen our stereotypical views of
women and men need to change. Jesus recognised the individual need in each
person He met. So we must also look beyond the physical and recognise the same
spirit within each of us. We must realise that when it is said that, “a woman’s
place is in the house,” it means the business house, parliament house, perhaps
even the presidents “Blue house” but most importantly the house of God.

Those of our sisters here today have chosen,
like Mary, to sit at the feet of Jesus and listen to him. My prayer is that you
will be allowed one day to lead your churches and not just be assistant pastors.
For on that day we will have come closer to recognising that of all the
disciples who were witness to the crucifixion and the resurrection of our Lord
and Saviour Jesus Christ, it was the women who stood closest to him and saw him
first.